268 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUil 



difficult to procure. They subsist principally on frogs, insects, snails and 

 mice, in fact are rather omnivorous feeders. Cranes nest on the wide 

 unfrequented plains and marshes of the Northwest, in America, and are 

 fast being driven to the niore remote mountains and arctic marshes. The 

 eggs are usually two in number, of a brownish drab color, irregularly spotted 

 with different shades of brown. The shell is quite rough with warty eleva- 

 tions. The young are covered with down and run about soon after hatching, 

 but are fed for some time by the parents. 



Grus americana (Linnaeus) 



Whooping Crane 



Ardea americana Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. lo. 1758. 1:142 

 ■Grus americana DeKav. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 218 



A. O.'U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 404 



grus, Lat., a crane; americd'ita, American 



Description. Plumage ivhiie, except the wing quills which are black; 

 the bare skin of the head carmine red with a growth of black hairs; bill 

 dusky greenish; legs black; eyes yellow. Yoimg: Head feathered; general 

 color whitish, washed with rtisty brown. 



Length 50-54 inches; extent 90; wing 22-25; tail 9; bill 5.5-6; depth 

 at base i .4 ; tarsus i i-i 2 ; middle toe and claw 5. 



The home of this bird is in the interior of North America from Minnesota 

 and Dakota to Slave lake and south in winter to Florida, Texas and Mexico. 

 In colonial times it was evidently common in the Atlantic States as far as 

 New Jersev, New York and New England, but there are no definite records 

 for New York in recent times. I was told that a specimen of this bird, 

 mounted about 15 years ago at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in 

 Rochester, N. Y., was killed near Cayuga lake, but I have been unable to 

 trace the specimen. In recent years its line of migration lies almost wholly 

 west of Lake Michigan. 



DeVries in his Journal, describing the country of New Netherlands, 

 mentions White cranes as occurring (1639-42) with the swans, geese 

 and ducks which swanned on the coast of New York bay [see N. Y. Hist. 

 Soc. Col. 2, 3, 1 10]. 



